Good news for coffee-drinkers out there!
A new study from England’s Queen Mary University has shown that drinking coffee is not linked to having stiffer arteries. The research even involved people who drank as much as 25 cups of coffee in a day! In other words, coffee’s not that bad for the heart, as previously thought.
Coffee consumption was categorised into three groups for the study. Those who drink less than one cup a day, those who drink between one and three cups a day and those who drink more than three. People who consumed more than 25 cups of coffee a day were excluded, but no increased stiffening of arteries was associated with those who drank up to this high limit when compared with those who drank less than one cup a day.
The associations between drinking coffee and artery stiffness measures were corrected for contributing factors like age, gender, ethnicity, smoking status, height, weight, how much alcohol someone drank, what they ate and high blood pressure.
Of the 8,412 participants who underwent MRI heart scans and infrared pulse wave tests, the research showed that moderate and heavy coffee drinkers were most likely to be male, smoke, and consume alcohol regularly.
Dr Kenneth Fung, who led the data analysis for the research at Queen Mary University of London, said: “Despite the huge popularity of coffee worldwide, different reports could put people off from enjoying it. Whilst we can’t prove a causal link in this study, our research indicates coffee isn’t as bad for the arteries as previous studies would suggest.
I feel bad for those people who feared coffee and were not able to enjoy the rich taste it offers.
(Image Credit: Pixabay)